8 Materia Non-Medica Of Armadillos, Auto- and AIDS By Cheong Pak Yean

scattered like twigs and pebbles along the paths around the graves, reminded us of this crime against humanity. We retraced the victims’ trek to one of the detention centres where they were incarcerated before being sent to Choeng Ek. Like “911”, “S21” is also a number that has gone into infamy. Security office unit 21 used the buildings where the Tuol Sleng genocide museum now is, to detain and interrogate This placid scene belies the untold horrors of the “killing fields”. thousands including the ’s own cadres accused of dissension. The ore sad than quaint, the doctors and anyone who could possibly Khmer Rouge took over a school in 1975 words scrawled on the pose a challenge to Khmer rule. It could and converted the classrooms into prisons M white-washed walls of an be that he had good eyesight and could – narrow cells of only 0.8 X 2 metres, elementary school “A is for Armadillo” pretend to be a farmer after fleeing to located on the first two floors and the reminded us that we were in a land his ancestor village. He said that of the large communal rooms on the top storey. beyond time, , a land still 600 or so doctors in Cambodia then, Those imprisoned in the communal recovering from “Year zero”. “Year zero” only 54 were left four years later. A time rooms were not chained. Something is 1975 when the Communist Khmer warp, I was then attending the 10th crueler was devised. Ankles were shackled Rouge under ‘liberated’ Cambodia MASEAN Conference, November 2001 as to rings embedded in the floor by tight from the CIA-backed Lon Nol regime. its Secretary-General and had stumbled fitting horseshoe shape braces ending We were on a roller-coaster ride en- upon the events that happened a quarter in eyes at both ends. Long straight rods route to the “killing fields”, the Choeng of a century ago. like those used in construction sites Ek Genocide Centre in . The skulls neatly arranged in multiple were then threaded through the eyes We were lucky to be riding in that tiers in the stupa-like memorial at the mass of these ankle braces. Prisoners in the big rickety van, the Cambodian doctor graves bore testimony to the barbarity rooms were secured with feet facing accompanying us had said. Thousands of those men; mostly “little men” as the each other alternately – a single 6-metre were forced marched from various Khmer Rouge used kid-soldiers, 10 to straight iron rod could hence secure detention centres to Choeng Ek. He 15 years old. A pathology trainee’s 30 persons with a single lock at one end. survived the genocide of intellectuals, nightmare, the skulls each cried out the Bathing was irregular with mass hosing fate of their owners – fractures in the by water every few days. Urination and temporal bones inflicted by axes and defecation were into metal pots while smashed up maxillas from blows of batons. shackled. Diseases were rampant. Bullets were not to be wasted. Remnants Grotesque scenes were of ropes on the sturdy branches of the captured in monochrome photos now “Chankiri Tree” nearby and its scarred bark displayed on the walls of the museum. The were further forensic evidence – the latter tormentors did their jobs with draconian caused by the impact of young children’s thoroughness and documented not just

The skulls each cried out the fate of their owners. heads being smashed against the tree. the victims but the techniques in prints. The large pits that pock-marked the These faded sepia prints unleashed landscape after some of the mass graves primordial fears from the attics of my mind. were dug up, are now overgrown with The beastly men were “re-enacting” scenes grasses and wild flowers. The beautiful from the hell chambers of the Haw Par but irreverent rustic scene complete Villa, a theme park which was popular in with butterflies fluttering around was Singapore in the fifties. Back then, little something out of a postcard. There children like me visiting it were reminded were even buffaloes grazing in the that purgatory and torture after death paddy fields on the horizon. Only were just retribution for evil deeds. But The “Chankiri Tree”, where many children met violent deaths. remnants of human bones and teeth, what had the victims of Choeng Ek done to Page 9 9

Page 8 – Of Armadillos, Auto-Genocide revealed infection rates of 31.9% in and AIDS brothel-based sex workers, 22% in bar be tortured as such on earth? Hell hath girls, 18.8% in beer girls and 14.8% in no fury like living beings gone berserk! karaoke girls. Cambodian STD experts told More usual punishment was by Dr Thirumoorthy that up to 30% of whipping and electric cattle prods if antenatal mothers checked in a major house rules were flouted. The draconian hospital are also infected. The virus has rules stated in part: “Do not be a fool bored down to the core of a society that for you are a chap who dares to thwart is “Year zero” plus 26. the revolution. Do nothing. Sit still and The experts also tell us that the Scenes reminiscent of those from the hell chambers of the Haw Par Villa. wait for my orders. If there is no order, thriving sex industry burgeoned to keep quiet. While getting lashes or sequentially serve the various occupation electrification, you must not cry at all.” forces - Russian, Vietnamese and then 10,499 people were processed between various United Nation peacekeepers. Now 1975-79 in the one detention centre we locals and sex tourists sustain it. Many of visited. The lucky ones met swift death the workers are from . A full- on the killing fields. In five years, the colour leaflet distributed to visitors to Svay Khmer Rouge caused the death of at Pak “11 km Street of Flower” proudly least 1.7 million Cambodians through announced that the 1996 AIDSCAP study starvation, diseases and torture. revealed that the prevalence of AIDS in Why did this happen? Why did the the brothels there is only 18.6% and A leaflet on safe sex. civilised world allow this to happen? exhorts clients to “HAVE A NICE TIME!” Unlike what happened in pogroms, in both English and Japanese. Auschwitz or more recently in Bosnia, The glossy leaflet has interesting ‘tips now organising missions to Cambodia. the killing was directed not against for clients’. This was produced with the Singaporeans do not have to venture another ethnic or religious group, but help of foreign non-government far to do humanitarian work. against fellow Cambodians. A new organisations (NGOs) working to contain Armadillos, better known as anteaters, word “auto-genocide’ has to be coined the HIV virus by the pragmatic promotion are standard fare in restaurants in to describe that phenomenon. Was it a of condom use. Besides advice on hygiene Phnom Penh. Dr Wong Chiang Yin gamely pathetic case of paranoia and insecurity and abusive behaviour, it instructs clients ordered not only anteaters, but also – of having seized absolute power but that “You always use a condom. For anal snakes, fruit bats, monitor lizards and being incapable of governing? Or was contact, use an extra sturdy condom. other exotic game for dinner and enjoyed it a society who had lost its bearings, Always use lots of lube too. Sex workers seeing some of us squirm. Anteaters may war-weary at being caught in the are expert in safe sex satisfaction and soon be extinct in Cambodia and the kids unending big power rivalry of Indo-China afterwards, it will be the sex and not the would probably better relate to apples. *Afternote: – Burmese, Thai, French, then American, condom you remember! Ask to try the How about auto-genocide? The boy The above article was Chinese and Vietnamese. When elephants female condom! A visit may not be soldiers who ran the Tuol Sleng detention written in December 2001. dance, the grass is always trampled upon. perfect. You may be unfamiliar with each centre in the 1970’s are now in their 40’s. On 7 January 2002, the rd A land traumatised, a people still other. Don’t expect too much. Remember, There was never a formal trial for this 23 anniversary of the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, exploited – not just by perverted art you can always shop around next time.” lesser known Khmer holocaust. Even Pol the Prime Minister of collectors goading for decapitated body A delicate balance is maintained between Pot died of natural cause earlier this year Cambodia, Hun Sen parts of sculptures from Angkor Wat, promoting safe sex and purveying to base without being called to account. The announced that “the mountains of human skulls, but also by lecherous tourists and others pleasure with shrewd marketing flair. events are still too painful and divisive for symbolising the barbarity on sex tours exploiting young bodies Why did I choose to write about the Cambodians to confront. An article in of the 1975-1979 “killing fields”, would be kept as from the slums of Phnom Penh. The low life and sewers? In conversation with Times magazine reported that the evidence of atrocities, as sites Prime Minister, Hun Sen in his opening some doctors before the trip, they sang deteriorating skull exhibits would be soon of religious worship to the speech at the 10th MASEAN Conference, the beauty of our Raffles Hotel’s majestic removed for reasons of hygiene*. Some say dead” and would remain announced that Cambodia has made outpost in Seam Reap and the ‘must-see’ on display. The week before, it is an attempt to sanitise history, to forget he also announced that the significant success in curbing the AIDS wonder of the ancient world. For one, I and to move on. The HIV virus would be bars and karaoke lounges epidemic in his country. The prevalence cannot write about the temples. I did not more difficult to root out. Sad but true, I would be closed literally at gun-point. The Cambodian of HIV infection has declined from 3.9% make the extra effort to see Seam Reap left Cambodia learning that “A” also story continues. in 1997 to 2.8% in 2001, based on last this trip. I was holed up in the conference stands for armadillos soon to be extinct, Credits for year’s sentinel surveillance of the general hotel for most of the four days managing auto-genocide soon be sanitised and Photographs: population aged 15 to 49 years old. This the meeting before rushing back to ■ AIDS which would continue its toll. We would like to thank is a heartening 30% decrease in official my singleton practice. Maybe it was Dr Wong Chiang Yin for figures but even so, 1 in 36 adults infected enough to know why there are so many Editor’s Note “Killing fields” and “Chankiri Tree”, and is still an alarming figure. A study also social and church groups in Singapore See pg. 11 for related poems. Regina Chin for “Skulls”.